And the environment becomes much more positive-whether at home, on the job, at play, or while volunteering.

Trust grows, which usually leads to respect. When you like people and treat them as individuals who have value, you begin to develop positive influence with them. You can’t lead without people, which means you need to learn to like people if you want to lead well! To grow at this level, leaders work on getting to know their people and connecting with them. In other words, they give the leader Permission to lead them. At this level, people choose to follow because they want to. Use your time at this level learning to lead yourself – through priorities and self-discipline – and you’ll be ready to move to the next level. It is a prime place for you to begin investing in your growth and potential as a leader. They truly only follow if they want to.īut the news is not all bad about this level. Why? Because position does not automatically result in influence, and volunteers are aware that they don’t have to follow anyone. People who remain on the position level may find it difficult to work with volunteers. At Level 1, people only follow if they believe that they have to. That’s because it only works if you have leverage (such as job security or a paycheck) over your followers. After all, anyone can be appointed to a position! While nothing is wrong with having a leadership position, everything is wrong with relying only on that position to get people to follow. It’s the only level that requires no ability or effort to achieve. The lowest level of leadership-the entry level, if you will-is Position. THE 5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP Level 1 - Position And while there is more to this teaching than space in this blog, today I want to offer a general overview of the 5 Levels as a reminder that you are still on your way as a leader – and so am I! So feel free to bookmark this page or print it out as a quick guide for your journey as a leader. I wanted to help leaders understand and increase their effectiveness.

That’s why I developed the 5 Levels of Leadership paradigm in my book, Developing the Leader Within You, and then expanded it in my book, The 5 Levels of Leadership.

Everyone wants to know where they stand and how to get to the next level. Whether you’re one of these things or all of these things, one thing remains true:īut where are you on your leadership journey, and where do you go from here? Over my years of teaching about leadership, that question exists at the heart of so many leaders.

Level 5 leadership